The genres for this photo are street photography, journalism, documentary photography and portrait.

Technical

The photo had a long exposure time and therefore this created a high contrast image. The lighting at the scene is predominately natural daylight. The shutter speed must have been fast in order to capture the moving trolley full of people- however, it’s possible that the trolley stopped for a period of time and therefore the shutter speed could have been longer. The image is black and white with a vast tonal range (Ansel Adams zone system) which supports both the darkest black [000000] and the whitest white [ffffff]. Finally, the image uses the rule of thirds and as a result of this, the eye is drawn into the centre most part of the image.

Visual

The image is naturally split into three sections due to the rule of thirds; the top, middle and the bottom third. The image is also naturally framed due to the background and white stripes. Although the image is tilted slightly it doesn’t lack the aspect of symmetry. The texture of the trolley is successfully portrayed in this image along with various patterns such as the bolts in the lower half of the image. Furthermore, the contrast between white and black in both the photo and the social situation is extremely vivid.

Contextual

This photograph explores the divide between black and white people in America at the time. It also shows the difference in classes and ages; the older woman looks as if she’s turning her nose up at the photographer whereas the kids look very interested, this could be due to the fact that they’ve never seen a photographer before and are fascinated by the equipment and concept of taking a photo. The photo was taken in 1955, the year of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (a movement that sought to challenge the views of society on people of colour and rebrand America as the land of equality).